SmartVault Erfahrungen

Great product for storage and collaboration

Kommentare: With SmartVault I never have to worry about where my documents are for all of my clients. I know they are secure and accessible at all times no matter what computer I have access to.

Vorteile:

I love SmartVault for the unlimited storage capacity and ease of use. I am easily able to collaborate and share files and sensitive documents with colleagues and clients alike with different permissions. I love being able to access my documents from any computer, anywhere, anytime. I feel like care about me as a consumer and try and be as helpful as possible.

Nachteile:

Learning SmartVault was a bit difficult in the beginning but the company provides plenty of training and hundreds of videos.

Not worth the effort or price

Kommentare: Even though I have had issues with the software and it does not meet all of my needs I likely would have renewed had they honored the agreement made when I signed up. You are required to have a minimum of 2 licenses and the agent I worked with was able to waive that requirement and I agreed to use the software as opposed to going with a different provider. They have now decided to unilaterally enforce the 2 licenses even though I was told my pricing would be locked in as long as I remained a customer. So due to the price, because it does not contain premium features, and the lack of integrity I would not recommend this software to anyone.

Vorteile:

I like that the software does what it is supposed to (securely stores documents) but there aren't too many bells and whistles and a lot of it is very manual to do. I also like the DocuSign integration.

Nachteile:

There are a lot of features missing and since they are now doubling the cost it is definitely not worth it. There is no way to securely request files from clients who do not have an account. They just barely added a document request feature which I will not be trying since I am not renewing. It is not intuitive to use for my clients and it does not integrate with my tax software. There is a feature to send tax organizers to all of your clients which would be useful if I could upload a template but that is not an option.

5-2023 Microsoft Issues

Kommentare: Terrible customer service.

Vorteile:

Ability to share and save documents with clients.

Nachteile:

Inability to access any Microsoft Documents - Word or Excel.Since May 2023 (over 2 months), I have been contacting customer service as well as my rep, [sensitive content hidden], begging them to help us with this problem. The software does not allow us to retrieve or save any Excel or Word documents to SV. This is a massive problem for my firm and our record keeping services.

Well packaged Document Management System, well presented!

Kommentare: Overall, I have been very impressed by SmartVault. I was using Office 365 Business and was fed up that Sharepoint kept falling over for clients - I had set it up as groups to move documents around as I provide payroll services, but often I would get an email from the client saying not received or can't access. SmartVault integration has been very easy and clients have embraced - I think that for many it looks like IE tree set up for navigating makes it easier and that a desktop version is available for their use - a feature taken away by Microsoft - they feel they have greater control too. The current global pandemic has meant that the software has been a god send in maintaining client relations and service provision. I am pleased to have moved over and would recommend.

Vorteile:

- Very user friendly and easy to navigate - Easy to set up and invite clients and give the appropriate access according to their status i.e. full for the company director down to folder or file specific - Easy to upload documents and great that it has a desktop version in addition to the online version. Clients like the Apple integration and the fact it works happily with MAC's as comfortably as non-MAC Windows PC's - Good support, though confusing when you get a US number for someone who lives in India to assist! - I'm a UK based company - Free set up and training assistance including full run through of the software - Unlimited Companies - Free access for clients - Templates for Accounts/Payroll etc save a lot of time for setting up year on year

Nachteile:

- Integration with Outlook - this is hit and miss if it works and mine doesn't meaning I can't link email in - have been advised it is due to not having the full office suite, though I have and it still wouldn't integrate - A little expensive compared to other products, but it was best fit for the business

Wouldn't use anything else

Kommentare: We are operating a paperless office and everything in the cloud, this is eco friendly as paper waste is minimal. Also all data is securely stored in a cloud so we do not have to worry about backups .

Vorteile:

Possibly the most seamless cloud-based solution for accountants. There are a few ways to work with SmartVault depending on your circumstances, these are the portal itself, Connected Desktop and SmartVault Drive. All can be used from your main PC. SmartVault Portal You can use the portal in a web browser, this is fantastic if you are on the move and away from your usual machine when you need to access documents and all you need is an internet connection. Connected Desktop This would be used from your PC, this is where you can do tasks such as sending password protected documents, links to documents, or get documents signed by clients. SmartVault Drive This is simply a mapped drive from the cloud to your PC, it is so simple to use, where you can access files drag and drop documents in seconds. One of the most important pros is the use of 2 Factor Authentication as this does hold client records and data.

Nachteile:

Only con I have found, when getting documents signed by DocuSign using SmartVault, if you select one document to sign, then drag and drop other documents, only the original selected documents get updated in SmartVault, and then you have to update the signed documents manually via drag and drop.

Only document storage and not the best one

Kommentare: The software is only document storage and not the best one. It is supposed to integrate with Intuit tax software (Prosystems, etc.), but if you use something different (I am on CCH), you are out of luck. Customer service is horrible and not worth the time you spend contacting them. Please read my Cons section for more impressions.

Vorteile:

They promise many good features, but only a few of them actually work.

Nachteile:

I was originally on the tax-pro subscription for $360/year for several years. They canceled the tax-pro plans and charged my credit card $112 just for the month of November. It is almost four times the price and not something I would pay for this software. The change of plan was not communicated clearly, the specific date of change was not communicated at all, and now customer service tells me that refunds are outside of their policy even though I cancelled SmartVault immediately. There are more cons than pros to this software. My customers were receiving upload notifications after a three-week delay, which created a lot of confusion. The software was not intuitive to the customers. Individual files had to be made accessible to them even when uploaded to an already accessible folder, which was a complete waste of time and another source of frustration. Sometime last year, SmartVault had a hiccup and resorted our filing system, e.g., files from 2017 folders were randomly moved to different folders, etc. DocuSign integration worked in about 30% of the time; in most cases, I would get a file error and go directly to the DocuSign website, which defeats the purpose of this integration. I had contacted customer service for each of these issues and received no help. They now require a minimum two licenses regardless of whether you are a single-member firm.

Reliable and Secure

Kommentare: I love the integrations. I cannot say enough about their vision to continue to improve it's interface. This is a super cost effective way for me to operate my tax practice as well as the work I do with other clients.

Vorteile:

I love that SmartVault can integrate with other software applications I use. The security that SmartVault brings to the table is critical to the protection of my clients data. This application fits perfectly with my suite of other applications and I can count on it remaining secure.

Nachteile:

The website times out too often. Maybe I am not aware of being able to extend the time-out but that is definitely something that needs to improve. I also would like to see improvements in the mobile application.

Easy and secure

Kommentare: SmartVault is easy to use and secure. The price point is great. Clients find it easy to use. I really like the integration with Outlook. I can easily email links to documents, which makes SmartVault even easier for clients. It is secure, and that is very important to me. Access to files anytime and anywhere is also important. Customizable folders is an added benefit. Each year I get more clients using it. I will use it as long as am in practice. I have no need to shop for anything else.

Vorteile:

Security is the number one feature. SmartVault is easy to use and secure. Clients find it easy to use. Integration is Outlook works great.

Nachteile:

A function to email a third party a document without them having an account would be great. Maybe it is there and I don't know how to use it.

Terrible customer service - no response during implementation

Kommentare: Just awful. The sales guy, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], was nice and promised such a great solution for us. However, the implementation team has completely dropped the ball and now we are stuck on January 28th not being able to send out tax organizers or engagement letters to our clients.

Vorteile:

It seems like it would be a good solution, but we can't seem to get anyone to help up get our files migrated from Dropbox Business and help us work out integration with Drake Tax softward

Nachteile:

No help and no ability to figure things out for ourselves. Our QuickBooks is also down due to this horrible implementation process where we can't get in touch with anyone at SmartVault.

An OK portal, if you only want a portal

Kommentare: They are a competent client portal with a price on the lower end of the spectrum. However, after 6+ years the product was quite stale so I decided to switch to a more agile portal vendor who is actually spending time and money to improve and develop their product.

Vorteile:

It integrates with Lacerte fairly smoothly. SV drive and SV connected desktop facilitate working with the files on my local workstation, which is a feature that many cloud based DMS solutions lack. Always having my documents available from wherever I am.

Nachteile:

They did not meaningfully improve the product at all while I was using it between 2013 and 2019. The product was literally almost exactly the same when I started using it and when I stopped. Also, their iOS app is, to put it generously, pathetic - and was never updated to fix the many glaring problems with it. Chief among those is that from day one the search function in the app is completely useless, meaning that I have to scroll through many nested folders to find each file I want, every time.

Used by my accountant

Vorteile:

It's really easy to upload documents and communicate with my accountant through SmartVault. It seems very secure so I feel comfortable uploading documents with personal data.

Nachteile:

So far, there is nothing I have come across that I didn't like. It's a simple tool to use.

Very unsatisfied

Kommentare: We used them for few years and always had below average customer support. We ended up trying to cancel them today after only a month into our new billing period and they refused to refund our payment for the remaining 11 months. They basically said they do not care how much time we have left, they are not prorating. Really?!!! They are charging us for 11 months of services that they are not going to provide. It's a horrible company that rips their clients off! Stay away from them. There are much better providers out there.

Vorteile:

Document sharing with clients. Also it was not easy to understand and kept locking clients out of the system

Nachteile:

Customer support, price, policies the were not disclosed upfront at contract signing

Clumsy/confusing to use, and SmartVault will screw you on the way out the door.

Kommentare: Low end portal service that clients found difficult to use, and which we found more difficult to integrate into our business model as a document management system than we felt should be necessary.

Vorteile:

I had high hopes for the platform. Clients found it difficult to use. It did provide a marginal level of flexibility for small clients/individuals. Larger clients had higher expectations than what was provided.

Nachteile:

The pricing has become ridiculous in comparison to what is received. Price has doubled year to year??? Great punchline to this joke. SmartVault's cancellation policy is morally void. After getting hit with an unexpected doubling in cost year to year (after a significant increase the year before), I was informed on my renewal date that I could cancel my subscription and lose all access to the account, but SmartVault's policy was NOT to refund anything for the year subscription that they charged to my credit card, even though I would not have access to the service for the year. What a crock. SmartVault is an expensive, marginal portal service that is designed for the lower end of the market and set up to screw you on the way out. Beware.

AWFUL CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Kommentare: We started using smartvault about 3 years ago and it is a great software/cloud organization for an accounting practice UNTIL something goes wrong. The customer service is terrible, the wait to talk to someone could take hours and they would promise a call back but it wouldn't happen. So you call back, get another promise and it doesn't happen again. In the meantime, your whole workflow is suffering. It has been a month and I am still waiting...

Vorteile:

convenience of having all the documents in one place, organized

Nachteile:

UNRELIABLE, make sure you backup your data, but most importantly, TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

Easy and effective document management system

Vorteile:

I use this software on a daily basis since all our documents are stored on it. Thus, I am constantly "checking out" and "checking in XL and PDFs. Once I am done working on something I just save it, close it, and ot automatically is updated and checked back in to the software storage.

Nachteile:

The one thing that would be nice to have (which I was able to do with our prior software filing system) is to be able to "check out" a document in a "view only" manner. Technically, of someone else has already checked out a document and you subsequently check out the same one, this is what happens to your version, but if you want to do this with an unchecked out file, you cannot. This would be helpful for cases that you know you do not want to have any changes made to a file but still want to view it. It would allow a peace of mind knowing that you are not going to accidently change anything.

Excellent Document Storage Integration with Lacerte Tax

Kommentare: I use SmartVault as my PDF printer, as well as a place to store client documents.

Vorteile:

SmartVault is integrated with my Lacerte tax software - When printing from Lacerte to SmartVault, all tax returns are deposited directly into the proper client's folder.

Nachteile:

I have been using SmartVault for over 5 years, and I have not yet found anything negative in my use of the portal.

Great Software for Users and Clients

Kommentare: Excellent. Customer support is always easy to speak with and the software is a great fit for our company.

Vorteile:

Simplicity for our internal users and our clients. Easy to organize files neatly in their respective folders for a clean presentation for clients.

Nachteile:

Software still needs some small tweaks, but overall, I believe the developers put their hearts into the projects. Seems like any time there is something in the software that I think needs to be addressed, the staff comes out with an update and fixes it.

Happy Customer

Kommentare: Overall I am happy and glad I found them.

Vorteile:

The price is affordable for a boutique firm like mine. It also puts me at ease for the security for confidential information sharing with clients. It's also easy to organize and I don't have to worry about clients who always ask for the same information over and over again. I just simply tell them to go to the portal.

Nachteile:

The tech support is helpful but not as responsive as I'd like since one reason I became their customer is because I was told their tech can be my tech for my clients so I don't need to waste my time to assist my clients.

Excellent Secure Storage Software

Vorteile:

I love how easy this software is to use! We first started using it when i had a chromebook, so i was even more impressed when i got a normla laptop and could use the desktop app for saving/downloading files! It gives our clients a sense of security, and it's very easy to set up a folder structure, add engagements, and invite clients to use it!

Nachteile:

My number one complaint is that you cannot edit documents in Smartvault. You have to download them, edit them, and then reupload them, which makes things difficult when both us and the client need to update something

Proud Member of the SmartVault Fan Club

Kommentare: We have been very satisfied with smart fault, which allows us to organize and archive securely an enormous amount of client files to be shared.

Vorteile:

Smartvault is ridiculously easy to use, and provides a ridiculous amount of storage for the price. Our organization has set up branded portals and client folders for exchanging large files, and set up and transfer of terabytes of information took only one day. It is easy to manage customer access from the administrative tool, and support is always available when we need it.

Nachteile:

The tool is extremely secure, but there is one things that I have found frustrating. It is difficult to create top-down permissions for subfolders. This will only slow you down a minute or two, but it can be mildly frustrating.

Smartvault user

Vorteile:

This is a very easy tool to save all documents, organized and able to share with the colleagues and available always online.

Nachteile:

So far I have no negative comments on the uses that I give to this application.

Horrible customer service, not as advertised

Kommentare: Not good at all. The service did not work as it was originally described to me and then the reps would not respond to me to resolve the issue. I have seen similar comments on Facebook saying the same thing.

Vorteile:

I liked that they appeal specifically to the accounting industry. Many services serve multiple different industries, but SmartVault is trying to work specifically within tax preparation.

Nachteile:

I was originally told that SmartVault integrated with my tax preparation software (Proconnect), but it does not. I was also told that I would have a 30 day money-back guarantee. I tried to cancel my service and claim the refund, but they ignored all of my messages (more than 10) and continued to bill me every month!

Smartvault - Excellent Purchase

Kommentare: This interactive secure portal has been a lifesaver with the increased use of electronic data transfer. It has saved us money by no longer needing to snail mail paper copies or to password encrypt secure email attachments. Provides an excellent, secure means to share tax preparation documents between our firm and our clients!

Vorteile:

This is very easy to use software for both our office staff and for our clients. Provides high level of confidence on the security of the tax information stored in Smartvault.

Nachteile:

I like everything about this software! There is nothing that I find to dislike!

Love using SmartVault

Kommentare: Having the virtual storage is a huge plus as well as share-ability.

Vorteile:

It is so easy to get acclimated to SmartVault. Pre-training is important and the SmartVault University provides lots of useful information.

Nachteile:

I'm still learning but so far the only thing that I don't like is how hard it is to Archive a client vault. Drag & drop would be so much easier.

Smartvault Rocks!

Vorteile:

I love Smartvault, I've used it now for 3 years to track bookkeeping, payroll, taxes and tax planning. It works great for me, check out the new view they just added. Pretty great!

Nachteile:

I wish when you add something or try to open a folder it would go faster. This is a little frustrating.